Galaxy S6, HTC One M9, and LG G Flex 2: MWC's Flagship Phones

At Mobile World Congress this week, I've had the chance to spend a little time the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, the HTC One M9, and the LG G Flex 2  the three currently phones vying to be the top of the Android phone market.

At Mobile World Congress this week, I've had the chance to spend a little time the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, the HTC One M9, and the LG G Flex 2  the three currently phones vying to be the top of the Android phone market.

The Samsung and HTC phones were announced at the show, and while the LG one was announced at CES, it hasn't shipped yet. All three are being marketed as "flagship" phones  the ones with the best screens, processors, build quality  and of course, the highest price tags. And while we're seeing three great phones, each with its own great characteristics, together they prove the adage that you can't please everyone: each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

The Galaxy S6 has received a lot of attention for the big change in design from the previous Galaxy S5, swapping out the plastic back for a duo-tone metal casing, covered on both front and back with Gorilla Glass 4. Introducing the phone, Samsung Electronics CEO JK Shin said it combined "best-in-class design with best-in-class production."

But that design has proved controversial. I think the duo-tone colors look great, and in particular, I do like the look of the S6 edge, which features an AMOLED screen that curves on both sides, a step farther than what Samsung did on the early Note 4 Edge. It does make the phone stand out, while adding some functionality. The normal S6 doesn't have the edges to the screen, but it too now has a duo-tone metal case that looks a bit higher-end that the more plastic-like back on the Galaxy S5 or the Note 4.

The edge version has a new feature that lets you assign up to five contacts, each with their own color, so you can quickly contact them or tell when they are calling or texting. You can also touch your finger to the heart rate sensor on the back to send them a note that you are busy. The edge features are intriguing, though I was a bit disappointed that Samsung dropped a feature that offered quick access to applications just from the edge. But I'll have to really try this to see how useful it is.

The 5.5-inch screens on both models have 2,560-by-1,600 resolution, giving them 577 pixels per inch, making it the highest density screen I've seen, and it does look wonderful. And it's the first phone to sport a processor made on a 14nm FinFet process, a Samsung Exynos Octa 7 with four ARM Cortex-A57 cores and four Cortex-A53 cores in a big.LITTLE configuration. In the presentation, Samsung said the new process was capable of up to 20 percent more performance and 35 percent more energy efficiency than the previous 20nm version (which was used on some versions of the Galaxy Note 4). Later, a Samsung executive told me the A57s run at up to 2.5GHz, with the A53s running at up to 1.5GHz. Informal tests by my colleague Sascha Segan confirm that it's a fast processor.

Compared with earlier models, there are a number of nice enhancements. The fingerprint reader has been changed so that you can just press your finger on the home button, rather than swiping it as on the S5 or the Note 4; and while that's something Apple has done on its recent phones, it's still a nice change. The new Samsung Pay feature, which uses technology from Loop Pay, looks very intriguing: if it really ends up working at more than 90 percent of the places that accept credit cards when it launches this summer, as Samsung has claimed, that will be a huge improvement over any other mobile payment method I've seen. I'm looking forward to giving that a try. And it now has wireless charging built in, and a number of improvements to the company's Knox security framework.

I also like the changes to the user interface. Samsung's TouchWiz skin on top of Android has always been a bit heavy, and while it's still there, many of the icons have either been replaced or supplemented with text, making it much clearer what does what. It still looks heavier than stock Android, but I think it's a step in the right direction.

Testing it, I was particularly impressed at both how much easier the camera app seems and how quickly you can bring up the camera by just double-tapping the home key no matter what else you are doing. Both the 16-megapixel rear-facing camera and 5-megapixel front-facing camera have been improved so they can be brighter, supporting F 1.9 for brighter images and real-time HDR. And Samsung says the pixel size in the front camera has improved as well.

While there's a lot to like here, there also are things to miss from the older designs, and some things in the design that might prove controversial. I really like the look of the metal under the glass, but do worry in the prototypes at the show that there are some edges where the screen meets the case and it's a bit sharper than I'd like. And I think I'll miss the removable battery and microSD card for additional storage that we've come to expect from the Galaxy line. It goes to show that every design has its trade-off.

HTC One M9

From a design perspective, this year's HTC One, known as M9, really doesn't look much different from last year's version, known as M8. It still has the lovely all-metal body, though this year's version is a bit shorter and thicker (though you probably wouldn't tell unless you were holding the two next to one another). It's a bit thicker and heavier than the S6, but not by much. And it will offer a new two-tone silver and gold model.

From a hardware perspective, HTC has the smallest screen of the group, sticking with a 5-inch 1,920-by-1,080 display, though upping the brightness a bit from last year's model. It runs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, a 20nm processor with four 64-bit ARM Cortex-A57 CPU cores running at up to 2GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores. (Note the LG Flex 2 uses the same processor).

In addition to the processor, the big change is to the camera. The M8 was widely criticized for its camera, which has 4 megapixels but larger pixels known as "Ultrapixels." I thought that was an interesting idea, but one that resulted in lackluster pictures that didn't stand up to the competition. On the M9, that 4-megapixel ultrapixel camera is the front-facing one, while the rear-facing one has a more conventional 20-megapixel camera. That should help, and while the pre-production versions at the show didn't seem very fast, the production versions could change. HTC continues to have a number of quite interesting camera options such as its "Zoe" feature for creating short moving pictures.

On the software side, HTC has adapted its Sense UI overlay for Android 5.0 Lollipop, and the company plans to offer a wide variety of special themes that could be attractive to some users. It continues to push its BlinkFeed interface for keeping you in touch with the latest news and information. As before, the HTC One does offer a microSD slot option, but doesn't offer a removable battery.
I continue to think that HTC has some of the best designs of Android phones, and the One M9 doesn't disappoint, but it doesn't break a lot of new ground either.

LG G Flex 2

In some ways the LG G Flex 2 is the most interesting design of the three. Like the earlier G Flex, it stands out for the curved display. With this version, though, the curve is a bit gentler, and to my mind fits my hand and my face a bit better.

This phone is available in "platinum silver" and "flamenco red" colors, and it now has a new version of its "self-healing" surface to remove small scratches. In addition, LG claims that the curved display makes it 30 percent stronger than a flat smartphone when dropped on its face. I think it looks quite striking.

The display is a 5.5-inch plastic OLED display with a 1,920-by-1,080 resolution, and I thought it looked quite good. As with the earlier model (which had a larger 6-inch display, but only 1,280-by-720 resolution), the curve cuts down on glare, and seems to look particularly good for watching video. In addition to having higher resolution than last year's model, this year's version is brighter, and LG said it developed a special chemical treatment to make the glass 20 percent stronger. While the Galaxy S6 is higher resolution, this looked quite good, and I'd have to try both for a while to decide between them.

As with most recent high-end LG phones, this has the "rear" key feature, which puts a button on the back on the phone for waking the phone, taking pictures, and other functions. This seems to work better with the curved display, and holding the rear key button seems more natural.

This was the first announced phone with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, and thus should have a bit of a speed boost over the original model as well. Unlike Samsung or HTC, LG is keeping the removable battery on the G Flex 2; in addition, it has a microSD slot for adding up to an extra 128GB of storage.

LG has a number of software additions to the basic Android 5.0 Android version, including its Knock On feature for waking the phone by tapping; and this models adds a few new ones. A "Glance view" lets you slide your finger on the curved screen when it is off to see notifications, while a "gesture shot" feature lets it take a picture from 1.5 meters away and can show you the last shot when you drop your arm. This is designed for selfies. But the camera specs are a bit behind the other high-end phones, with a 13-megapixel rear-facing and a 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera. It's hard to tell until we can test this is the real world.

Overall, I really like the look the Flex 2, but certainly understand how others could find the curve to be problematic; we're all used to flat phones and they probably fit better in pockets. But it's certainly unique.

All three of these vendors are trying to make their flagship phones stand out not only from a features perspective, but also in terms of design. The Galaxy S6 and S6 edge have a unique duo-tone casing that I think looks great, and the edge has an unusual curved shape, while being a lot subtler than the G Flex. The G Flex 2 has a curved screen that really makes it stand out. And the HTC has a more classic look, with an all-metal case, but one that still looks quite good. Each of the designs has its strengths and weaknesses, and each is likely to find fans. I don't know that any of them quite matches Apple's iconic look for its iPhones, but you have to give them credit for trying.

Michael J. Miller's Forward Thinking Blog: forwardthinking.pcmag.com
Michael J. Miller is chief information officer at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm. From 1991 to 2005, Miller was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, responsible for the editorial direction, quality and presentation of the world's largest computer publication.
Until late 2006, Miller was the Chief Content Officer for Ziff Davis Media, responsible for overseeing the editorial positions of Ziff Davis's magazines, websites, and events. As Editorial Director for Ziff Davis Publishing since 1997, Miller took an active role in...
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